These photos were acquired on April 3, 2022 (Sol 398 of the Perseverance rover mission) – the date of the NASA helicopter’s 24th flight.

The Ingenuity Mars rotorcraft acquired these images using its navigation camera. This camera is mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight.

On this latest flight, the device flew for 69.5 seconds, traveling roughly 154 feet and reached a maximum altitude of around 33 feet.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/USGS

 

Extended flight

NASA has extended flight operations of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter through September. In the months ahead, the rotorcraft will support the Perseverance rover’s upcoming science campaign exploring the ancient river delta of Jezero Crater. Along the way, it will continue testing its own capabilities to support the design of future Mars air vehicles.

Ingenuity’s new area of operations is entirely different from the modest, relatively flat terrain it has been flying over since its first flight in April 2021.

Several miles wide and formed by an ancient river, the fan-shaped delta rises more than 130 feet (40 meters) above the crater floor.

Perseverance Rover location and current whereabouts of the Mars Helicopter.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

Dry river channels

Filled with jagged cliffs, angled surfaces, projecting boulders, and sand-filled pockets that could stop a rover in its tracks (or upend a helicopter upon landing), the delta promises to hold numerous geologic revelations – perhaps even the proof necessary to determine that microscopic life once existed on Mars billions of years ago.

NASA’s robotic Holy Grail mission, a Mars sample return effort to bring back to Earth Martian collectibles.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Upon reaching the delta, Ingenuity’s first orders will be to help determine which of two dry river channels Perseverance should take when it’s time to climb to the top of the delta.

See you at the delta

Ben Morrell, Ingenuity Operations Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports: “With Flight 24 in our log book, it is now time to look forward to our upcoming effort that charts a course out of Séítah. Flight 25 – which was uplinked yesterday – will send Ingenuity 704 meters to the northwest (almost 80 meters longer than the current record – Flight 9). The helicopter’s ground speed will be about 5.5 meters per second (another record) and we expect to be in the rarefied Martian air for about 161.5 seconds. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with routing assistance, data provided by the helicopter will help the Perseverance team assess potential science targets. Ingenuity may even be called upon to image geologic features too far afield (or outside of the rover’s traversable zone), or perhaps scout landing zones and caching sites for the future Mars Sample Return program.

 

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